ALOOOOHAAAA! Oh that wonderful greeting as you get off the plane in Hawaii!
As some of you may have heard, “aloha” is expressed when you see someone, and also when you depart.
But it means much more than hello and goodbye.
Aloha is also the fifth principle of Huna, Hawaiian shamanism, which is stated as:
To love is to be happy with.
According to Huna, love and happiness go hand in hand. We love more, we are more happy.
And this isn’t about pursuing happiness as thought of in the West, where love is often a missing element.
From Jonathan Hammond, Huna practitioner:
“To be in a state of Aloha is to have a positive and loving attitude towards everything (including ourselves) and to be an active participant in the creation of happiness.”
And:
“To embrace the spirt of Aloha is to build a friendlier rapport with all of life, to collaborate with it in transformative ways that lead to dynamic new beginnings.”
Source: The Shaman’s Mind, Jonathan Hammond
So much to wrap your arms around (with love of course)!
Love comes up often in coaching sessions:
Self-love.
The loss of love. The fear of that.
Loving a partner in life. Finding one to love.
Relationship with others in life, and seeing them with love despite what negative reactions they get from them.
Loving strangers.
Loving your enemies.
Loving the world.
It may not be obvious at first that we’re talking about love, but when we shift it from the original complaint brought to the session to talking about love, things become more clear as to what needs to change.
When you look at the list above, where is love present and where is love shaky or non-existent in your life? And then, how does your happiness relate to when love is present and when it’s not?
With the things where love is shaky or not there, complete the sentence:
To love is to be happy with __________________.
What comes up for you when you do?
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